Philippe Estèphe as Don Giovanni(photos: Paul Fave)
Our latest Reader Submission is 30-year-old French barihunk Philippe Estèphe, who hails from Agen, nestled between Bordeaux and Toulouse. He has been performing Raimbaud in Rossini's Le Comte Ory at the Opéra de Rennes in December and January. Performance will resume on March 1st.
Other upcoming performances this season include Monsieur de Brétigny in Massenet's Manon at the Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Opéra-Comique in Paris, as well as Albert in Massenet's Werther at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.
Philippe Estèphe (photo: LucieMdB)
He made his operatic debut with Chants de Garonne and the Opéra Bastide. He frequently performs with the Aquitaine Philharmonic Orchestra, where he has performed Papageno in Mozart's The Magic
Flute, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, Albert in Massenet's Werther and the title role in Mozart's DonGiovanni. He also toured with Opéra Eclaté singing the role of Don Giovanni.
In 2016, Estèphe performed in the premiere of Dominique Spagnolo’s La Princesse Maritorne. He recently sang the role of Sparck in Offenbach's Fantasio at the Opera Comique, Dedale in Jonathan Dove's Le Monstre du Labirynthe at the Montpellier Opera, Peer Gynt at the Limoges Opera and Morales in Bizet's Carmen in Montpellier.
Evgueniy Alexiev as Jakob Lenz in Bielefeld(Image_ Theater Bielefeld)
Evgueniy Alexiev is the latest baritone to take on the challenging title in Wolfgang Rihm's "Jakob Lenz." He's performing the piece at the Theater Bielefeld on July 3 and 7. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.
Theone act chamber opera Jakob Lenzis based on the novella "Lenz"
by Georg Büchner which deals with an incident in the life of the German
poet. Lenz, who along with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, formed the “Sturm und Drang” (Storm and
Stress) movement in German literature which made German authors the
cultural leaders of Europe during the 18th century.
Evgueniy Alexiev as Jakob Lenz in Bielefeld (Image_ Theater Bielefeld)
The source of Büchner's material comes from the diaries of the
social reformer and priest Johann Friedrich Oberlin, which detail the
activities of his house guest, who was clearly suffering from mental
illness at the time. The
suicidal poet stayed with Oberlin in a small village in the Vosges
Mountains near the German-French border in the hope of recovering from
his depression.
Büchner's
opening pages describing the mountain landscape and hinting at Lenz's
inner state with the single sentence "he did not feel at all tired, only
it sometimes annoyed him that he could not walk on his hands instead of
his feet" are reduced to a stage direction, but the rest of the
libretto roughly follows Büchner's outline. A key element of thelibretto deals with his trauma around the death of a small child whom was he was
unable to resuscitate.
The opera was first performed at the Hamburg Staatsoper in 1979 with the late English baritone Richard Salter in the title role. It has subsequently been performed at the Wiener Festwochen and at Oper Stuttgart with Georg Nigl, Teatro Comunale di Bolgna with Tomas Möwes and the English National Opera with Andrew Shore.
At the end of Lenz's life he lived with Goethe's brother-in-law, Johann Georg Schlosser, where he lived in poverty. After years of increasingly poor physical health and
debilitating mental problems, Lenz died on the streets of Moscow 1792.
French-Bulgarian baritone Evgueniy Alexiev studied at the Lycée Français and the Superior National Conservatory of Sofia. He was a finalist at the 1995 Luciano Pavarotti International Competition of Singing in Philadelphia and won first prize in the Alès Opera Competition. As part of the ensemble in Bielefeld, he has performed Don Giovanni, Escamillo, Rossini's Figaro, Marcello and Athanaël. He also performs regularly in France, including at the Opera of Strasbourg, Opera of Saint Etienne, Opera of Dijon and at the Opera of Montpellier
French barihunk Romain Dayez will sing Gérard Cardoval in Raoul Moretti's rarely performed operetta Un Soir de Réveillon. The piece was originally performed on stage of the Moulin de la Galette in Paris for broadcast on French television. The piece is performed in 10 vignettes written by Paul Armont et Marcel Gerbidon.
The story revolves around Viviane, the mistress of a wealthy Englishman
named Bob, who is hosting a dinner a dinner party. Among the guests is Dayez's character Gérard
Cardoval, a cheerful young man who has just inherited a huge sum of money and plans on
spending it on beautiful women. He also has no plans to ever marry any of them. That same evening, Monique Lepage, a smart young woman, comes to visit her old friend
Viviane and hatched a plot to be disguised as a young woman from the country.
There will be two performances at the Cabaret La Nouvelle Eve between November 6-December 26. Tickets are available online.
Our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchaseHERE.
In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book
this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the
calendar. You can purchase thatHERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!
French barihunk Stéphane Degout, who we have seen nude before on the opera stage in Thomas' Hamlet, is now back in his birthday suit for Claude Debussy’s only complete opera Pelléas et Mélisande at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. The opera is returning to the company after a 40-year absence and is available as video on demand for those in Europe.
Festival d’Aix-en-Provence's resident director Katie Mitchell provided a literal interpretation of the dreamlike piece. The opera starts with Mélisande in a wedding dress where she falls asleep and the story is her dream and a reflection of her reality. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra, with Barbara Hannigan and Mélisande and Laurent Naouri as Golaud completing the trio.
You can catch it live on July 13 and 17 and tickets are available online.
Degout will next be appearing as the Count in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam and them as Olivier in Richard Strauss' Capriccio at La Monnaie in Brussels.
Barihunk Romain Dayez will be performing the title role in Cavalli's L’Oristeo, which has been all but forgotten to time. The performance is being dubbed the opera's "second world premiere."
The performances at Opera Marseilles with the members of Concerto Soave will directed by Olivier Lexa, who has updated the production with video projections while staying true to the period. The musicians ofConcertoSoavewill bearrangedon either sideofthe stage,strings and windsfacingeach accompanied byacontinuo.
The opera was reconstructed by Lexa from a manuscript that appeared to be hastily scribbled by Cavalli and deemed almost illegible. The opera is notable for containing one of the first examples of a da capo aria, Udite amanti, sung by Corinta (sung by Lucie Roche in this production).
Watch a recital with Romain Dayez:
The opera was written with a prologue and three acts and was designated as a dramma per musica. Cavalli
and Faustini, his favorite librettist, collaborated on eight operas in the
1640s. However, Faustini's
untimely death in 1651 ended the collaboration that gave birth in a
year and a half to L’Oristeo, La Rosinda, L’Eritrea and La Calisto. It premiered at theTeatro Sant 'Apollinare on February 9, 1651, just four decades after
Monteverdi's Orfeo, which is often considered the first opera.
Performances are on March 11 and 13th.
Other cast members include Aurora Tirotta as Diomeda and Amore, Maïlys de Villoutreys as Ermino and Nemeo, Pascal Bertin as Oresde, Zachary Wilder as Trasimede and Lis Viricel as Euralio.
Every so often, we like to present historical bari-hunks to our readers. French bass-baritone Gérard Souzay is a singer who generates some controversy among lieder afficionados. He was criticized for having a smallish voice and for creating emotion through exaggerated phonetic dramatization, which critics maintained stifled the true meaning of the words and music. However, history has served him well, and he in now remembered fondly for his excellent musicianship, perfect diction, sense of style (particularly in French) and detailed interpretations. We're huge fans and have featured him regularly on the site.
Gérard Souzay was born on December 8, 1918 as Gérard Marcel Tisserand to a musical family in Angers, France. In college, he concentrated on Philosophy, which he continued to read widely after making his career as a singer. After graduating, he went to Paris to pursue philosophy, and to study voice with Pierre Bernac, Claire Croiza, Vanni Marcoux and Lotte Lehmann. Later, he entered the Paris Conservatoire (1940-1945), where he was a prize-winning student.
Gérard Souzay sings Fauré mélodies:
Gérard Souzay made his professional debut in 1944, his New York debut in 1950, and his opera stage debut at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence in 1958, where he sang roles in Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Since then, his operatic career developed parallel to his career as a recitalist and concert singer and specialist in little-known repertoire. In 1960, Leopold Stokowski invited Souzay to interpret the role of Orfeo in Monteverdi's Favola d'Orfeo at the New York City Center Opera. In 1962, Ernest Ansermet invited him to play Golaud in Debussy's Pellèas et Mèlisande at the Rome Opera. Souzay also sang Golaud at the Paris Opéra Comique in the same year, in a performance celebrating the centenary of Debussy's birth. In 1963, at the Paris Opéra, he sang Don Giovanni for the first time. In 1965, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro; he also made his debuts that year at the Vienna State Opera and the Munich Opera. Known for his phenomenal gift for languages and dialects, Souzay was also greatly respected for his master classes.
Gérard Souzay sings Ravel:
In a distinguished 43-year recording career that began with the recording of two duets by Blangini and Leguerney in 1944, Gérard Souzay, a remarkably versatile artist, recorded more than 750 titles in at least 15 languages. These recordings, appearing on nearly 50 labels (more than 535 different catalog numbers) on 78s, 45s, LP’s, prerecorded open reel tapes, 8-track cartridges, cassettes, and CD’s, earned Souzay numerous awards. Souzay won the prestigious French Grand Prix du Disque on three separate occasions for performances of a George Frideric Handel aria, Ravel songs, and classical arias with orchestra. Except for operas and cantatas, Souzay rarely recorded joint programs: his only recorded duets were with his sister, soprano Genevieve Touraine, Germaine Lubin, and Elly Ameling.
He died August 17, 2004.
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It is with great sadness that we report the death of French baritone Franck Ferrari at the age of 52 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
In March 2014, he withdrew from Chausson's Le Roi Arthus at Strasbourg's l'Opéra national du Rhin to deal with his illness. His career took him to the major houses or Europe, where performed Scarpia at the Paris Opera, Berlin and in Strasbourg,
Sharpless in Toulon, Thoas in Iphigenie en Tauride in Madrid, and
Escamillo in Avenches, Turin and at the Hollywood Bowl. He had a particular love for appearing in rarely
performed works including Karnac in Lalo's Le Roi d'Y's and Napoléan in
Giordano's Madame Sans-Gene. He performed over 30 roles at the two main opera houses in Paris.
He studied at the conservatory in his hometown of Nice winning top prizes at vocal competitions in Marseille, Paris and Toulouse.
Two of the hottest barihunks in all of opera will be performing the role of Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Paris Opera. Edwin Crossley-Mercer will sing the first half of the run from April 17-May 14, with Bjorn Bürger taking over from May 26-June 28th. The production is directed by Robert Carsen.
In April, Bürger will be singing Dandini in Rossini's La cenerentola at the Frankfurt Opera, where he will return after his Papageno to take on another Mozart role - Masetto in Don Giovanni. Crossley-Mercer will stay at the Paris Opera where he takes on Brander in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust later this year.
Richard Alexandre Rittelmann as Escamillo and in the Barihunks Calendar
Richard Alexandre Rittelmann, who was one the winners of our Barihunks Charity Calendar photo contest, has some interesting concerts on the horizon.
On February 8th, he'll sing Ludwig, one of the main baritone parts in Franz Liszt's rarely performed Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos under Arturo Tamayo. Liszt wrote the score between 1857-62, using a libretto by Otto Roquette. The story depicts the life of Hungary's Saint Elizabeth and incorporates the Catholic plainchant used on her feast day, as well as Hungarian melodies. From the plainchant, Liszt extracted a short motive, which he used as a symbol of the cross. The piece is scored for plenty of low voices, including three baritones and two basses as well as a mezzo-soprano, soprano and a chorus.
A little side note of interest, Rittlemann is part Hungarian. Tickets are available online.
Eva Marton sings the prayer from Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth:
On February 20th, he then returns to more standard fare when he performs the torreador Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen. He sings the role opposite the gypsy Karine Ohanyan on the French Riviera at the Palais de l'Europe in Menton.
From March 6-21 he sings Sergeant Sulpice in Donizetti's La figlia del reggimento at the Teatro Nuovo in Torino .
When we released this year's Barihunks calendar, we were instantly bombarded with questions about French baritone l'Oiseleur des Longchamps. His provocative image caught the eye of a number of readers, who asked about his name and amazing body (which he shows off liberally!).
Longchamps is a multifaceted artist, who has a love for photography and being photographed, as well as music and theater. He's also quite the hippophile (or lover of horses) and he's put together a fascinating concert dedicated to his favorite animal called 'Les chevauchées Lyriques" (Lyric rides). The songs are part of his album of the same name.
Included will be Alagna's "Cantu pi’ n’ cavaddu bravu," Chausson's "Le Chevalier Malheur," Chopin's "Le guerrier," Debussy's "La Belle au bois dormant" and many more.
The concert is on November 22nd at Les salons de la Mèlodie in Brussels. For additional information or to reserve seats, visit the website or send an email to info@lessalonsdelamelodie.com.
You can enjoy more beautiful pictures of l'Oiseleur des Longchamps in our 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar. Buy your today by clicking on the LULU button below.
Nicholas Courjal (left) and Benoît Arnould (right)
Opera de Vichy will be presenting Mozart's Die Zauberflöte on September 19 and 21 with Nicholas Courjal as Sarastro and Benoît Arnould as Papageno. The cast also includes the charming Tamino of Shawn Mathey, the thrilling coloratura soprano Burcu Uyar as the Queen of the Night, Camille Poul as Papagena and Raffaela Milanesi as Pamina. The Orchestre d’Auvergne will be conducted by Roberto Fores-Veses.
After this run, the French bass-barihunk Nicholas Courjal will appear in Rossini's Moise et Pharaon at Opera de Marseilles from November 8-16. In 2015, fans of Courjal will get to see him outside of France, as he appears in Ravel's L’enfant et les sortilèges on February 12 at Festival Hall in London and then at the Royal Opera House from June 17-29 in Rossini's Guillaume Tell.
Benoît Arnould sings Fauré's Libera me domine:
Benoît Arnould, who is new to this site, graduated from the Conservatory in Metz and also received
a Licence in Musicology from Sorbonne University. In a short time, he
has become recognized for his interpretations of baroque music and
Mozart. He has performed Charpentier’s Médee, Ascalaphe in Lully’s Proserpine, Christ in Bach’s Passions, Mozart’s Masses, Anténor in Rameau’s Dardanus and Requiem, and Lucifer in Handel's La Resurrezione. He has also recorded Les Grands Motets by Desmarest, Lully’s Proserpine and Missa Assumpta Est Maria de Charpentier, Cavalli’s Ormindo, Jesu Christi by Schütz, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri and Weckman’s Cantatas.
Barihunk Richard Rittelmann just took on the role of Punch opposite the Judy of Manuela Leonhartsberger in Harrison Birdwhistle's "Punch & Judy" at the Neue Oper Wien. The opera was a huge hit with the public and the critics. The performances marked the 80th birthday of the composer.
The Neue Oper Wien production will be performed again on October 14th at the Armel Opera Festival in Hungary and broadcast on "ARTE live-web." We will provide additional information closer to the performance date.
Harrison Birtwistle and his librettist Stephen Pruslin created a
stylized tragedy full of grotesque moments, the music of which is just
as capable of portraying a monstrous being as it is of portraying love.
Their work opens up a positively other-worldly realm, full of fairground
illusions and insane twists.
To this day, the opera has retained its polarizing effect. Just a few minutes into the action, Punch brutally murders his own child and Judy—and as the plot progresses, he ends up killing almost everyone else he encounters. Only Pretty Polly, whom he practically worships, is allowed by him to live. But eventually, Punch is overcome by horrible nightmares and the music begins to change in character.
Boris Grappe as Robert in "Wasser"(photo: Regine Koerner)
We recently discovered this photo of French barihunk Boris Grappe performing in the 2012 world premiere of Wasser by Arnulf Hermann at the Oper Frankfurt. The story is about a man who upon waking up finds himself in a hotel room with no idea how he
got there. He thinks he
recognizes people in the lobby, but his memory fails him. Everything is strangely
shifted and displaced, including the music.
Grappe had previously performed Barabbas in Aulis Sallinen’s Barabbas Dialogues with the company.
We decided to find up what he's up to and found him singing Franz in Christian Lauba's La Lettre des sable at the Opéra National de Bordeaux from April 24-30. The opera evokes thegreat classics ofsciencefictiontoimaginethe mysteriesbetween the past and the future.The characters pass throughthe hourglass oftimewithout really knowingwhere they are andwho they are.
Boris Grappe(photo by Patrick Vogel)
Born in Besançon, France, Boris Grappe studied voice at the Conservatoire de Lyon and at the Hochschule für Musik of Vienna. From 2007 to 2011, Boris Grappe was engaged at the Nationaltheater Mannheim where he performed Don Giovanni, Conte Almaviva, Guglielmo, Papageno, Figaro (Barbiere di Siviglia), Schaunard, Ping, Silvio, Harlekin, Donner, Melot, Falke, Albert. Graf Eberbach (Der Wildschütz).
From Decemeber 15-31, he'll perform Puck in Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein at the Grand Théâtre de Genève opposite Ruxandra Donose.
Our latest reader submission is 30-year-old French barihunk Aimery Lefèvre. A reader notified us after buying tickets for the world premiere of Philippe Hurel's Les Pigeons D'Argile at the Théâtre du Capitole, in which Lefèvre is singing Toni. Performances run from April 15-22 and additional information is available online.
Lefèvre studied piano and organ performance as well as singing at the Centre de Musique Baroque in Versailles, where he specialized in 17th- and 18th-century music performance. He continued his education at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Lyon under the direction of Brian Parsons, and then became a member of the Paris Opera’s Atelier Lyrique.
His debut was the male title role in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas under the direction of Kenneth Weith. In 2010, he made his Paris Opera as Fiorello in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, as well as Momus in Rameau’s Platée, the latter under the baton of Marc Minkowski. He returned in 2011 to sing Curio in Handel's Giulio Cesare and in 2012 to sing Arcas and Parque in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie.
This summer, Lefèvre heads to Santiago, Chile where he will sing Frédérick in Delibes' Lakme. Performances run from July 5-14 and tickets are available online.
French bass-barihunk Edwin Crossley-Mercer is making his long-awaited New York debut on March 3, 2014 at the Weill Concert Hall. It only seems appropriate that a singer as sexy as Crossley-Mercer would make his Big Apple debut with what amounts to an NC-17 rating. The Carnegie Hall website states, "Because the poems of Catullus deal with issues of sex in a frank
manner, some members of the public might find them objectionable. "
The warning refers to Carmina Catulli, a 17-movement song cycle by Michael Linton based on the poems of Catullus, the Latin poet of the late Roman Republic. Catullus fell in love with the aristocratic Clodia Metelli who was alleged to have an insatiable sexual appetite. Although many people have found his poems about his relationship with Clodia Metelli shocking, he actually influenced many great poets including Ovid, Horace, and Virgil.
Edwin Crossley-Mercer and Camille Poul sing "La ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni:
Michael Linton’s music is notorious for its emotional ferocity and
extraordinary technical difficulty. The rest of the program will include Linton's Seven Franchetti Songs, settings of poetry by the Italian-American polymath Cody Franchetti. They will be performed by tenor H. Stephen Smith. The accompanist for the concert is Jason Paul Peterson.
Tickets do not go on sale until January 7, so check back early next year at the Carnegie Hall website.
If you can't wait until March, you catch him in recital in Moscow, Russia on December 16 or as Jupiter in Rameau's Platée at the Theater an der Wien from February 17-28.
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The last time that we featured French barihunk Stéphane Degout on this site, he was baring it all for a performance as Hamlet at the Theater an der
Wien. Now he's in Brussels for composer Benoît Mernier’s second opera La Dispute, which was commissioned by the Théâtre de la Monnaie. The opera is based on the comedic play by the French dramatist Marivaux and explores the inconsistencies of love and wondering if they stem from men or women. Upon its premiere in 1744, the play was considered a funny, erotic and cruel masterpiece by critics, but received poorly by the public.
Degout is joined in the cast by a barihunk new to this site, French singer Guillaume Andrieux as Mesrin.
Stéphane Degout
The opera's plot centers around the burning philosophical issue of infidelity and a diabolical experiment that brings
together four youngsters raised in isolation from the world. Before
our eyes, they discover love and their first betrayals. For this work, the
Belgian composer collaborated closely with the librettists Ursel
Herrmann and Joël Lauwers. This gave him the opportunity to again
grapple with the awakening of desire which was a theme in his first opera Frühlings Erwachen from 2007. Performances run from March 5-19 and tickets are available online.
Edwin Crossley-Mercer's promo for his upcoming Ohio concert
We unabashedly have a few favorite singers at Barihunks and Edwin Crossley-Mercer is among our absolute favorites. Ever since a reader sent us an effusive email after hearing him in recital (along with a pirate sound clip!), we've been hooked. It doesn't hurt that he has that Anderson Cooper-ish sexiness about him AND an amazingly beautiful voice.
We're always bemoaning the fact that he rarely performs in the United States, but that's changing this year. On March 3, he'll be featured in the Art Song Festival in Berea, Ohio (just outside of Cleveland). His program includes songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Fauré, Debussy, Bizet and Cosma. Tickets are just $30 and students are free. Call 440-826-7664 for more information.
From May 17-25 he'll join another wunderkind, conductor Gustavo Dudamel, in performances of the title character in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. You won't want want to miss these performances, which are part of a Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy that the orchestra is performing. The Countess will be the incredible Dorothea Röschmann and the Count will be fellow barihunk Christopher Maltmann. The production set is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, with costumes by couturier Azzedine Alaïa. On alternating nights you can enjoy Don Giovanni with barihunks Mariusz Kwiecien and Ryan Kuster. Casts for Così fan tutte have not been announced.
Edwin Crossley-Mercer
Crossley-Mercer is currently in France performing Thésée in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie in Bordeaux and Versailles. From March 22-30, he'll take on the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opéra De Dijon. The Masetto will be the adorable Australian barihunk Damian Pass. Tickets are available online.
Edwin Crossley-Mercer sings Beethoven's "Elegy on the Death of a Poodle":
The January 2012 issue of BBC Music magazine features their list of the 50 greatest recordings of all time. At #30 is the classic recording of Claude Debussy's "Pelléas and Mélisande" with barihunk Jacques Jansen and soprano Irène Joachim. BBC Music magazine wrote:
This 1941 recording captures the elusive nuances and mystery of Debussy's symbolist masterpiece like no other. The trio of singers in lead roles - Irène Joachim as Mélisande, Jacques Jansen as Pelléas and Henri Etcheverry as Golaud - had all performed the opera many times together under the direction of Roger Désormière.
Jacques Jansen and Irène Joachim sing "Mes longs cheveux" from "Pelléas and Mélisande":
The #1 recording of all time is Georg Solti's recording of "Der Ring des Nibelungen" with Kirsten Flagstad, Regine Crespin, Hans Hotter, Birgit Nillson and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The top non-operatic recording was Carlos Kleiber's recording of Beethoven's 5th and 7th symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jacques Jansen was born in Paris in 1913 and died there in 2002. He became associated with the role of Pelléas like no other singer in history, as his light, high-baritone was perfectly suited for the role. He spent thirty years performing the role around the world and critics marveled at his crystal clear enunciation of the text.
Jacques Jansen sings "Ballades Médiévales":
He also made quite a mark in operetta, singing Eisenstein in “Die Fledermaus,” Duparquet in Reynaldo Hahn's “Ciboulette,” and Count Danilo in Léhar's “The Merry Widow,” which he performed nearly 1,500 times. His original dream was to be an actor, and during World War II, he was featured in a number of movies, including Sacha Guitry's “La Malibran.” He dubbed the singing voice of Alain Cuny in Marcel Carné's “Les Visiteurs du soir” and Jean Marais in “Le Lit à colonnes.”
After World War II, he performed outside of France, including roles in Vienna, Dublin, Amsterdam, London’s Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Milan’s La Scala. After his retirement, Jansen taught voice until his retirement in 1982.
The early results of our latest poll show that Francis Poulenc is the favorite French composer of Barihunks readers. Francois LeRoux, who we featured in yesterday's Bastille Day post, has dedicated himself to preserving French song. In August, his Académie Francis Poulenc will a ten day exploration of French song focusing on Poulenc, Charles Bordes, Emmanuel Chabrier and Henri Dutilleux.
Francois Le Roux
Here is Le Roux performing Poulenc's 1948 song-cycle Calligramme based on seven poems by Guillaume Apollinaire.
UPDATE: A reader asked if it's true that Francois Le Roux was the first male opera singer to appear completely nude onstage. We believe that to be true. He stripped off his clothes in Birtwistle's "Gawain" and had buckets of blood poured over his body. There is a pirate DVD of the opera if anyone is interested.
Gérard Souzay is one of our favorite historical hunks, so it seemed fitting that we celebrate the 201st birthday of Robert Schumann with his Dichterliebe. The song cycle, which roughly translates as "The Poet's Love," was written in 1840 and is based on the great poetry of Heinrich Heine. The very natural, almost hyper-sensitive poetical affections of the poems are beautifully mirrored in Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy-tales. Schumann adapts the words of the poems to his needs for the songs, sometimes repeating phrases and often rewording a line to supply the desired cadence.
1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (Heine, Lyrical Intermezzo no 1). (In beautiful May, when the buds sprang, love sprang up in my heart: in beautiful May, when the birds all sang, I told you my suffering and longing.)
2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (Heine no 2). (Many flowers spring up from my tears, and a nightingale choir from my sighs: If you love me, I'll pick them all for you, and the nightingale will sing at your window.)
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (Heine no 3). (I used to love the rose, lily, dove and sun, joyfully: now I love only the little, the fine, the pure, the One: you yourself are the source of them all.)
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (Heine no 4). (When I look in your eyes all my pain and woe fades: when I kiss your mouth I become whole: when I recline on your breast I am filled with heavenly joy: and when you say, 'I love you', I weep bitterly.)
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (Heine no 7). (I want to bathe my soul in the chalice of the lily, and the lily, ringing, will breathe a song of my beloved. The song will tremble and quiver, like the kiss of her mouth which in a wondrous moment she gave me.)
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (Heine no 11). (In the Rhine, in the sacred stream, great holy Cologne with its great cathedral is reflected. In it there is a face painted on golden leather, which has shone into the confusion of my life. Flowers and cherubs float about Our Lady: the eyes, lips and cheeks are just like those of my beloved.)
7. Ich grolle nicht (Heine no 18). (I do not chide you, though my heart breaks, love ever lost to me! Though you shine in a field of diamonds, no ray falls into your heart's darkness. I have long known it: I saw the night in your heart, I saw the serpent that devours it: I saw, my love, how empty you are.)
8. Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen (Heine no 22). (If the little flowers only knew how deeply my heart is wounded, they would weep with me to heal my suffering, and the nightingales would sing to cheer me, and even the starlets would drop from the sky to speak consolation to me: but they can't know, for only One knows, and it is she that has torn my heart asunder.) 9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (Heine no 20). (There is a playing of flutes and violins and trumpets, for they are dancing the wedding-dance of my best-beloved. There is a thunder and booming of kettle-drums and shawms. In between, you can hear the good cupids sobbing and moaning.) 10. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen (Heine no 40). (When I hear that song which my love once sang, my breast bursts with wild affliction. Dark longing drives me to the forest hills, where my too-great woe pours out in tears.) 11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (Heine no 39). (A youth loved a maiden who chose another: the other loved another girl, and married her. The maiden married, from spite, the first and best man that she met with: the youth was sickened at it. It's the old story, and it's always new: and the one whom she turns aside, she breaks his heart in two.) 12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (Heine no 45). (On a sunny summer morning I went out into the garden: the flowers were talking and whispering, but I was silent. They looked at me with pity, and said, 'Don't be cruel to our sister, you sad, death-pale man.')13. 13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet (Heine no 55). (I wept in my dream, for I dreamt you were in your grave: I woke, and tears ran down my cheeks. I wept in my dreams, thinking you had abandoned me: I woke, and cried long and bitterly. I wept in my dream, dreaming you were still good to me: I woke, and even then my floods of tears poured forth.)
14. Allnächtlich im Traume (Heine no 56). (I see you every night in dreams, and see you greet me friendly, and crying out loudly I throw myself at your sweet feet. You look at me sorrowfully and shake your fair head: from your eyes trickle the pearly tear-drops. You say a gentle word to me and give me a sprig of cypress: I awake, and there is no sprig, and I have forgotten what the word was.)
15. Aus alten Märchen winkt es (Heine no 43). (The old fairy tales tell of a magic land where great flowers shine in the golden evening light, where trees speak and sing like a choir, and springs make music to dance to, and songs of love are sung such as you have never heard, till wondrous sweet longing infatuates you! Oh, could I only go there, and free my heart, and let go of all pain, and be blessed! Ah! I often see that land of joys in dreams: then comes the morning sun, and it vanishes like smoke.)
16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (Heine no 65). (The old bad songs, and the angry, bitter dreams, let us now bury them, bring a large coffin. I shall put very much therein, I shall not yet say what: the coffin must be bigger than the 'Tun' at Heidelberg. And bring a bier of stout, thick planks, they must be longer than the Bridge at Mainz. And bring me too twelve giants, who must be mightier than the Saint Christopher in the cathedral at Cologne. They must carry the coffin and throw it in the sea, because a coffin that large needs a large grave to put it in. Do you know why the coffin must be so big and heavy? I will also put my love and my suffering into it).
As a bonus, here is Souzay singing Widmung. In "Widmung," Schumann confessed all of the things his beloved Clara Wieck (Schumann) was to him; his peace, angel, repose, rapture, heart, soul, grave for sorrows, better self and his heaven. In this carefully balanced arrangement of text and music, he revealed the depth of his engagement as a poet-musician. This spirited song contains a few devices which reappeared in his later works, including sweeping keyboard passages and the haunting enharmonic progression (A flat major to E flat major) to the central section. He altered the text by repeating the final verse, and these last measures contain a thoughtful instrumental effect, which eclipses the text and introduces a new motif.
Also, make sure that you check out our recent post of Austrian barihunk Markus Werba singing Schumann's "Faust."
